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To be fair, he is right that getting married before having kids reduces the chances of poverty(although that has more to do with having time to get a career started and money saved before paying quite a bit of money to take care of a child, than 2 parents and traditional values). Still a dodge on his part, and quite strange logic. Quite a bit of gun violence comes from those who did grow up in a "traditional" household, just look at the Colorado theater shooting.

Please tell me you're making this up.

It doesn't have anything to do with benefits running out. Unemployed people are not counted for the unemployment % if they are out of the workforce by choice. This can be anything from giving up looking for work to being a stay at home mom. They still get counted if they are looking, no matter if they are receiving benefits or not.

No. Double Fine is what really got it rolling.

Every one in melee combat(not sure about ranged) should get bonuses from flanking an opponent. I suppose Rogues could have some sort of ability to hit harder when attacking foes who are in a vulnerable position(flanked, flat-footed, stunned, etc.), like they do in 3/3.5/Pathfinder, but I don't exactly see why that has to be Rogue exclusive(other classes can take some sort of feat perhaps?). However, we still don't know how the Rogue's soul based abilities will factor in to this. From the description of them, it does sound like it will favor stealth and surprise attacks, so I suspect that Rogues will play similar to how they do in 3/3.5/Pathfinder. I believe that the biggest role of the Rogue is utilizing various skills to overcome obstacles. It could be my preference for playing 3.5E and Pathfinder, but I find that Rogues are the most viable when there are plenty of skills for them to utilize in the game, otherwise they just come off as weaker warriors who can usually dodge attacks easier. With PE, I'm quite sure that there will be quite a few situations where having a Rogue who is able to use their kills in a myriad of ways will be quite helpful. I suppose I could go into a great bit of detail on how I believe that the base progression of rogues(skill points, feats, and abilities) should be handled but I would prefer to discuss that in a thread about all classes. And my post is already quite long to boot.

Not really - If you're non-human you're still treated like a nord. Silly to hear that a city is keeping demi-humans out, only to be able to wonder about at will. I meant that it never tries to define my PC for me by "never contradicting any character design the player comes up with for the PC". Sorry if I wasn't clear about that.

Tall order there. No. You can't.

My posts in this thread are not about defending DA2. I have a feeling that that point was missed, however. Oh I was just remarking on that it seems that wherever you post someone is bashing the game. Is there anywhere that you can get away from it? I hate DA2. I generally will list the reasons why I dislike it(Dialogue wheel, combat system, linear gameplay) and try to avoid the "LOL WORST GAEM EVAR!!" that pops up pretty much everywhere.

So Alan, do you enjoy defending DA2 on both the BSN and here? It must get rather tiring.

I can't wait for this damn election to be over. I'm tired of getting calls asking me to vote a straight republican ticket or people bothering me when I'm gassing up. 2 more days and it will finally be over. Personally I want Obama to win for the sole reason that I live in Texas and predict that quite a few rednecks will do something stupid and get themselves killed. Which means less congestion on my way to and from work due to their vehicles falling apart or an unsecured item falling from their truck. Also the sheer amount of rage will tickle my funnybone.

I'm confused by what those who want xp tied to only objectives want. Something like ME2/3, where no matter how you played you got the same reward? Personally I hate this. XP should be rewarded for everything the PC does successfully, not just for completing a quest or objective. I also dislike the reasoning behind it. It sounds like hand-slapping players, which is worse than hand-holding them.

I think doing something like 3/3.5E an Pathfinder would be best. I want to keep them relatively simple(so that I can do calculations on a piece of paper) and avoid unnecessary complication.

No. It isn't like Obsidian will make PE into an MMO anyways. Between the costs and hostile reaction from the backers of the original PE, it isn't a feasible option, not to mention quite a few MMOs crash and burn(SWTOR anyone?).

I like romance in RPGs. It can provide different ways for the PC to interact with companions and can allow more role-playing opportunities, just like every relationship(like rivalry, respected enemy, or friendship) can. Most of the time I am quite cynical about it though. It usually ends up being pretty one-dimensional and blatant fanservice. Bioware games especially have this problem and it seems that other than cinematics and 'splosionz, all they focus on are creating characters(if you can call their one-line cardboard cutouts that) who scream "I'm an LI, have sex with me!". I don't like that at all. However this is Obsidian. If there is romance, I'm sure that it will be different from the sappy fanservice that usually occurs, will have a thematic purpose, and most importantly be built around a character that is interesting first and a romance second. Here is a list of suggestions on how to them right. Make sure that they are a well-developed character first, and that a romance plot makes sense with the existing character. Don't just craft a NPC for the sake of romance and don't slap romance on a character who it would be awkward for. Don't tie a large chunk of character development solely to romance. Someone stated that this is usually a problem and I agree. Character development should occur in all types of relationships, not just one type. Have friction occur between party members (also should happen between all types of relationships). If a party member thinks you "stole" a character they were interested in, then they should be pissed off, not just smile and act all happy. TL;DR version; I like romance in RPGs, although I'm usually apprehensive about them in most games. This is Obsidian though, if they do it, it will be well done ans serve a thematic purpose instead of just being blatant fanservice.

There wasn't one in DAO....... In fact, DAO actually had a good dialogue system.

I don't mind a marker indicating a location of some kind(like a cave or town), but I dislike a floating arrow above an objective.

Share the link. Im serious. I just reinstalled DA2 30 minutes ago. Ran through the tutorial. Fraps'd it. It's taking up 25 GB. My second drive is almost full so I'm going to have to play the game in small spurts and convert them as I go. So there's no link yet and I doubt I'll have any substantial produced until a week from now. But I'm gonna do it. I'll assuredly post the link here when I get the first video done. I feel sorry for you. I wouldn't replay DA2 if you paid me. I especially disliked the dialogue system, which made my playstyle impossible.

Mechanics that function well and compliment other mechanics Interesting and well executed concepts Functions well for it's purpose. A RPG should at least allow role-playing, for example. Replayability Content that doesn't scream "filler", and a good amount of good content(I like at least 20 hours)

I don't mind showing the player a meter or some other form of reference for how a companion feels about the PC. It just seems to be an easy way to keep track of how companions feel about the PC, which does get difficult when I'm juggling several playthroughs at once. I also liked the approval spam in DAO actually(since some seem to be talking about it). I always thought of it as a way to get approval points when the PC said something they meant positively, but was taken negatively by the NPC. The gift represented the off-camera conversation where everything was cleared up. I also would have liked insult spam quite a bit too.

I like the idea of critical failures, but would like to see them apply to all checks, not just combat. I think Obsidian can come up with some great consequences for critical failures, but I would not like them to be randomized effects. Critical hits can either do multiplied damage or go straight to HP, and critical success(in regards to saves and checks) can result in various rewards, like a high-quality item when crafting.

It meets my requirements of "never contradicting any character design the player comes up with for the PC", so in that respect, yes it is. However it has a combat system that relies on the player's skill rather than the characters, doesn't allow much ability customization at character creation, and has overly simple progression. In those respects it is pretty damn bad. Back to the point. Look, I thought DA2 sucked. From everything that has been officially confirmed about DA3, I will loathe it with a passion. I donated more money to PE than I usually would have in part because Bioware games can no longer scratch my western party based-RPG itch anymore. With their damn dialogue wheel(which IMO is the worst dialogue system I have ever seen) I simply can not roleplay in the manner I like to in RPGs. I don't think that words can express the hatred I have for their cinematic direction that results in games I watch more than play. I don't think that PE really had anything to do with Bioware or DA3 though. Obsidian had already been working on Wasteland 2, several of the more notable people at Obsidian had expressed a desire to make a game like the great IE games. I believe Obsdian just said "**** all these damn publishers, lets make the game we want to make".

I think that topic deserves it's own thread. It is too interesting of a discussion to get lost in here.

Where is the "It isn't turn-based, please stop creating these threads" option? I don't mean to knock turn-based(I really do like it), but PE was advertised (not exactly the right word, I know) as being a Real Time with Pause game, just like the old IE titles. I think that it should simply be the best RTwP game it can be, and was happy to throw in $140 to make it happen.

I don't think that many people who want romances in this game simply want a sexmance that consists of Hit on NPC ???? Achievement Unlocked! Probably the worst thing that has happened to RPG romance(other than the fanservice romances in certain games) has to be the "Sex=Victory" idea. Sex in a romance is no more a "win" than completing a companion's personal quest and getting a fistbump is a "win" in a friendship. I would guess that the majority of us in the "Pro-Romance" crowd want romances in PE to involve a good bit of character development, player options, party interaction, and good story telling, something that we feel Obsidian can easily do. I would go as far as to say that quite a few of us don't want a fanservice romances that involve a NPC with the personality of a cardboard cutout trying to have sex with the PC every five minutes while telling them how awesome and amazing they are.

I think that attributes should be done either like GURPS(for classless) or D&D 3(.5)E(for class systems). Preferably attributes will not grow at an incredibly fast rate where 100+ is common. Also, all attributes should benefit every class in some way. At character creation I would prefer a "point-buy" system to a "roll" system.